The Unexpected
by lisehrin
Summary: Tony & Angela (of course!) A somewhat fluffy take on the final episode.
1. Chapter I

_A/N: Forget the final scene of Savor the Veal III and go from there. Enjoy! Oh & gotta add that I've been loving all the WTB? fics posted lately. Keep 'em coiming guys!_

_Disclaimer: You mean WTB? doesn't belong to me? Must go sulk in a corner now... Yeah, whatever..._

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The Unexpected

Angela stared in shock at the object in her hand. The one thought that kept racing through her mind was, 'This can't be happening.' She was 41, a mother of a son who would soon be graduating from high school, and she was an executive of her own advertising agency. These types of things did not happen to a woman like her. And yet, she reflected, glancing down at the small object she held in her hand, it was still happening.

A knock on her door sent her scrambling to hide any evidence of what was going on. "Angela, are you..." Mona's voice trailed off as she witnessed her daughter desperately wiping away tears. She crossed the floor and sat down beside Angela. "You've been crying again." It was a statement, not a question.

Angela tried to collect herself and with a nervous smile explained, "I'm fine Mother, really I..." She caught Mona's unbelieving gaze and stopped. Cautiously, she attempted to check the safety of the hiding place in the bedspread behind her without raising Mona's suspicions. She failed.

Mona was studying her daughter carefully, trying to figure out some way she could fix things for her, some way to repair the damage she felt partially responsible for. It had been almost two months since Angela had returned from Iowa, two long months of seeing her moping around, grieving the loss of the most important relationship in her life. She had seemed so unhappy in Iowa, but Mona couldn't help but feel that this was much worse. As she noticed Angela's furtive glance behind her, she began to wonder if there wasn't more to this recent crying spree than met the eye. Aloud she sighed, "Oh Angela," and moved to hug her. The moment Angela was sufficiently distracted, she let her hand drift toward the mystery object hidden in the folds of the bedspread. Her hand grasped around something long and thin and she pulled back quickly to get a look at it. "What are you..." Mona froze as she realized what she was holding.

Angela made a desperate grab. "Mother! Give that back!"

Mona just held it higher and further away while trying to process the implications of her discovery. She tore her eyes away from the object to look at her daughter. Angela had given up trying to reclaim it and was staring at the ring on her hand, the one she still refused to take off. She couldn't look at her mother, couldn't process all the emotions flying around in her head. There was fear, there was embarrassment, anger at her mother for discovering her secret so quickly, there was confusion, and there was...joy?

Mona's voice interrupted her thoughts. "You're... Angela, you're pregnant?" The disbelief and astonishment in her mother's voice almost matched her own.

Angela's head slowly rose and turned to look into her mother's eyes. Her own were brimmed with tears as she bit her lip and said in a tiny voice, "I am."

"How did this happen?" Mona gasped.

A small smile crept over Angela's face before she could help it. "The usual way Mother. You of all people should know 'how it happened'."

Still trying to pull the pieces together, Mona asked, "You and Tony? You really? You and Tony had sex?" She'd never thought it would happen

Her mother's incredulity was pulling her out of her own shock. "Well Mother, we lived together, alone, for three months, and I wasn't his boss anymore, and it just seemed natural to..." She blushed a little as the memories came back to her. The feel of his body moving on hers, the heat of his skin, the way his hands traveled so slowly over her hips, and the amazing sensations she felt as he placed butterfly kisses across her stomach. Her eyes flew open as she stopped her mind from going any further. He was there, she was here, and they were going to have a baby? This was not the way things were supposed to happen. With a cry, she collapsed in Mona's arms. "Oh Mother! What am I going to do?"

The tears and uncontrolled emotions disturbed Mona, but she patiently allowed her daughter to seek comfort in her arms. When the downpour had reduced itself to hiccups and small sniffles, she pulled away, grasping Angela's shoulders and looking straight into her tear-stained face. "You are going to pick up the phone and book a flight to Iowa. Then you are going to have a long, long talk with Tony."

"I can't. I can't!" She shook her head. "He'd want to move here or he'd want me to move there and it just wouldn't work. We'd end up hating each other."

"Angela," Mona began sternly, "This is his baby too. You can't not tell him. And you two, you've got to stop being so selfish, this is not just about you anymore."

Angela hesitated, "I don't think..."

"That just it! Don't think!" Mona jumped in with advice. "Do you still love him?"

Angela nodded.

Mona paused before asking the next question, unsure of how to phrase it. "Do you want this baby?"

"I," Angela breathed heavily before answering with certainty, "Yes."

"Then do it. Go to Iowa, tell Tony you're having his baby, tell him you love him, and then let the chips fall where they may. You'll find a way to make it work."

Angela closed her eyes and took another deep breath. "Okay," she said finally. "I'll talk to him."

Mona squeezed her daughter tightly. "That's my girl."


	2. Chapter II

It was early the next morning and Tony had just gotten out of the shower. He was wearing a blue terry cloth robe and a damp towel was draped over his shoulders as he stood in front of his closet, selecting his clothes for the day.

The doorbell to his apartment rang and he headed out of the bedroom with a frown, wondering who it could be. In the whole time he'd lived in Iowa he'd never once heard it ring. In fact, he was a little startled to discover that he had a doorbell. He tightened his robe and shouted, "Just a minute!" when the doorbell rang again.

He grasped the doorknob and froze as he revealed the person standing in the hall. "Angela?" He asked in shock, his mouth hanging open. Was she really here, or was this just another one of those cruel dreams that had been haunting him lately?

"Hi Tony." Angela greeted him calmly. When he didn't move or speak, she began to feel a spark of nervousness ignite deep inside. "Can I come in?"

At her words, he seemed to recover himself a little. Still flustered, he pulled the door open wider and gestured with his arm. "Yes, yes of course. Come in, come in."  
  
She walked purposefully to the center of the room and sat down on the sofa. "We need to talk."

Tony was staring at her openly, his mind whirling. She looked...gorgeous. Her blonde hair curled softly about her face and her outfit... Well, it was still a typical Angela outfit, but it complemented her body perfectly. He noticed that she seemed a little thinner than the last time he saw her, but there was something new about her too, a certain glow, as if she were lit from within. What was she doing here?

Angela smiled as she watched him standing at the open door, gazing at her in wonder. "Tony," she called, breaking through his trance. He shook his head and focused on her face. "Come, sit down. We need to talk." She patted the sofa beside her and waited.

He closed the door and walked over to where she sat, pausing a moment before joining her.

She smiled as she appraised him. "Nice outfit. What is it about us and answering the door in our housecoats?"

He glanced down at his robe, momentarily flashing back to the day they met. "Oh yeah...how about that." His mind was still so confused; he couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. He just kept asking himself what possible reason could bring her to his door.

She met his eyes and the old intense gaze was still there. The one that always made her heart flutter and race in anticipation.

Instinct, as ingrained in him as breathing, forced him to pull away and clear his throat. "So, uh, what do we need to talk about?"

With a pang of regret, she realized that things weren't going to go as easily as she hoped. She'd hurt him, and he'd gone back to being the Tony who treated everything about their relationship with kid gloves. Except this time, she wasn't going to let him do that. "I miss you Tony, and there's some things you need to know."

"Like what?" He was concentrating on getting through this conversation as quickly as possible, before he lost his restraint and told just how much he'd been missing her.

"Like that I still love you and that no matter how hard I try the wanting you doesn't go away. Like how not a day goes by that I don't think of you, and wonder what you're doing. I've got these elaborate fantasies in my mind and they're of you just going about your daily routine, only I'm still a part of it. Like how I keep going back and forth between hating you and hating myself for the situation we've put ourselves in. Like how I wonder each day if today is the day, you decide you don't love me anymore. Like how..."

"Angela stop." He had watched her and listened to her as long as he could, but as the words came faster and the tears began to gather in her eyes, he knew he couldn't let her go on.

"Why?" Her eyes blazed now. "You don't want to know what this has done to me? You've made your decision and now we all have to deal with it?"

He grasped her hand and held it tightly within his own. "Angela. God, you don't know how many times I've wished that you were here or that I was there or that things were different. I love you...more than anything, and the thing is, I know I'm never going to stop loving you or missing you. But I just don't know. So much of the time I just want to forget all about this job, this opportunity, and go home. I think about it a lot. But there are times when we win a game or a student has a breakthrough in class that I think, okay, yeah, this is what it's all about. I don't know what to do anymore and nothings changed."

She looked into his eyes and searched them for the truth. "Tony, maybe everything's changed."

"Angela, you can't live in this world. So the one that has to change is me, and I'm so unsure of, of everything."

"Tony, I'm having a baby." She waited for the news to register.

"A baby," he said blankly. Suddenly his eyes widened and he gulped for air. "A baby? Our baby?"

She bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah, our baby."

Still not quite believing her, he asked, "You and me? We're having a baby together? There's a little piece of you and me growing inside of you?"

Emitting a shaky breath, she nodded once again. "Yeah, we are. I'm pregnant."

"Oh Angela!" His arms enveloped her, and he held her tightly against his chest. He couldn't get over the wonder of it. He placed a kiss on her head and loosened his grip a little to see her face again. She smiled up at him through her tears and he all he could see was the beauty of her. Slowly, tentatively, he lowered his mouth to hers, and the touch was electric, sending fireworks down his spine. She wrapped her hands around his neck and drew him closer still. The reality of his touch was so much more than the memories she'd been holding on to. She knew they should be talking, working out a rational plan for how things were going to be, but she didn't really care about that right now. She was in Tony's arms, he was happy about the baby, and that was what mattered. Their kisses slowed, becoming less needy, more passionate. Tony leaned her backwards gently, wanting to touch her and feel the warmth of her as they held each other, but reality was slowly reasserting itself in his mind.

"Ang?" He was almost breathless. She held him tighter and brought her lips back to his. "Ang?" His voice was firmer now, but he still couldn't bring himself to move away from her. Slowly, reluctantly, he broke away, his eyes locked firmly on hers. "Angela, we can't... we have to talk."

She closed her eyes briefly; not sure she wanted to hear what he had to say. Reality was highly overrated.

He saw the uncertainty in her eyes, the way she set her shoulders as if to ward off disappointment, and shook his head. "No. No, it's not a bad thing. Really. We just... Wow. It's such a big thing. You and me are gonna have a kid."

"Tony, you don't have to..." She didn't know what she was saying but she knew she couldn't listen to him tell her he needed time or, or, whatever he was going to tell her.

He took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. "Angela. No more running, okay? I'm not telling you I'm not happy. I'm not telling you I don't love you. I'm not telling you I don't want this baby. I'm happy, I want this, and most importantly, I want you. But I've had all of five seconds to think about this so forgive me if I'm a little, um..."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Angela grinned, "Inarticulate?" She slipped her hand into his and squeezed it.

"Yeah, that too." He flashed her a matching grin, once again trying to read her eyes. He wondered why he found it so easy to get lost in her gaze, and why it always felt like they were having some sort of cosmic conversation when it happened. "I think I wanna move back home."

'Yes!' her heart screamed, but then, "Are you sure?"

"Are you?" The question was weighted with a lot more than what appeared on the surface. Was she sure she loved him? Was she sure she wanted to be with a man who had picked a job over her? Was she sure she wanted a man who wouldn't have a job or even much money if he did come home?

"I am." Two simple words, but they chased away all of his doubts. Her face softened and the brown of her eyes deepened as he leaned in to capture her lips again. "Are we through talking?"

"Yep." He placed a light kiss on her cheek. "I think I'm gonna have to call in sick."

"Uh huh. You are feeling a little warm." Her hand brushed down his chest.

"I think it's catching." He nibbled the soft skin behind her ear.

"Mhmmm. Definitely." Her hands toyed with the tie on his robe. "Hey Tony?"

"Yeah?" It was getting hard to bring his lips away from her skin.

"I love you." Did he feel it too?

Tony forced his gaze back to her face. He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and smiled down at her. "I love you." He looked down shyly, "Always have, always will." Placing his hand gently on her stomach, he whispered, "And I'm pretty sure this is proof."


End file.
